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 HEROD

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HEROD

the daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia, but later lived with Herodias, the wife of his own half-brother Philip. This union with Herodias is mentioned and blamed by Josephus (Ant., XVIII, v) as well as in the N. T., and brought Antipas to ruin. It involved him in a war with Aretas in which he lost his army, a calamity that Josephus regarded " as a punishment for what he did against John that was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism" (Ant., XVIII, v, 2). The N. T. gives the reason why Herodias sought John's head.. As she had married Herod Philip — not the tetrarch of the same name — who lived as a private citizen at Rome, by whom she had a daughter, Salome, she acted against the law in leaving him to marry An- tipas. John rebuked Antipas for the adulterous union, and Herodias took vengeance (Matt., xiv, 3- 12; Mark, vi, 17-29). Josephus does not say that John's death was caused by the hatred of Herodias, but rather by the jealousy of Herod on account of John's great influence over the people. He was sent to the frowning fortress of Machaerus on the moun- tains east of the Dead Sea, and there put to death (Jos., "Ant.", XVIII, V, 2). Griitz (Gesch. d. Jud., Ill, xi, 221 — Hist. (Eng.), II, 147) as in other instances thinks the gospel story a legend; but Schijrer admits that both Josephus and the evangelists may be right, since there is no contradiction in the accounts (Hist, of the Jewish People, etc., Div. I, V, ii, 25). The most celebrated city built by Antipas was Tiljerias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. He named it after his friend the Emperor Tiberius, and made it the capital of the tetrarchy. The city gave its name to the sea, and yet stands ; it was for a long time a great school and centre of Jewtsh learning. It was before this Herod that Our Lord appeared and was mocked (Luke, xxiii, 7-13). Antipas had come to Jeru.salem for the Pasch, and he is named with Pilate as a per- secutor of Christ (Acts, iv, 27). The enmities that existed between him and Pilate were cau.sed by Pi- late's having put to death some Galileans, who be- longed to Herod's jurisdiction (Luke, xiii, 1); a re- conciliation was effected as related in Luke, xxiii, 12. When Herodias saw how well her brother Agrippa had fared at Rome, whence he returned a king, she urged Antipas to go to Ca>sar and obtain the royal title, for he was not king, but only tetrarch of Galilee — the N. T. however sometimes calls him king (Matt., xiv, 9; Mark, vi, 14), and Josephus likewise so styles Arche- laus (Ant., XVIII, iv, 3), though he was never king, but only ethnarch. Contrary to his better judgment he went, and soon learned that Agrippa by messengers had accused him before Caligula of conspiracy against the Romans. The emperor banished him to Lyons, Gaul (France), A.u. 39, and Herodias accompanied him (Jos., "Ant.", XVIII, vii, 2). Josephus (Bel. Jud., II, ix, 6) says: "So Herod died in Spain whither his wife had followed him". The year of his death is not known. To reconcile the two statements of Josephus about the place of exile and death, see Smith, "Diet, of the Bible", s. v. "Herodias" (note). IV. Aghippa I, also called the Great, was a grandson of Herod the Cireat and Mariamne, son of Aristobulus, and brother of Herodias. The history of his life and varying fortunes is stranger than romance. He was deeply in debt and a prisoner in Rome under Tiberius ; but Caius, having come to the throne in a.d. 37, made him king over the territories formerly ruled by Philip and Lysanias, to which the tetrarchy of Antipas was added when the latter had been banished in a.d. 39 (Jos., "Ant.", XVIII, vi, vii). In a.d. 41 Judea and Samaria were given to him by the Emperor Claudius, whom he had helped to the throne (Jos., " Ant.", XIX, iv, 1), so that the whole kingdom which he then gov- erned was greater than that of Herod his grandfather

(Jos., "Ant.", XIX, v, 1). He was, like many other Herods, a builder, and, according to Josephus, he so strengthened the walls of Jerusalem that the emperor became alarmed and ordered him "to leave off the building of those walls presently" ("Ant.", XIX, vii, 2). He seems to have inherited from his Hasmonean ancestors a great love and zeal for the law (Jos., "Ant.", XIX, vii, 3). This characteristic, with his ambition to please the people (ibid.), explains why he imprisoned Peter and beheaded James (Acts, xii, 1-3). His death is described in "Acts", xii, 21-23; "eaten up by worms, he gave up the ghost." He died at Ca^sarea during a grand public festival ; when the peo- ple having heard him speak cried out, " It is the voice of a god and not of a man ", his heart was elated, and "an angel of the Lord struck him, because he had not given the honour to God". Josephus gives substan- tially the same account, but states that an owl ap- peared to the king to announce his death, as it had appeared many years before to predict his good for- tune (Jos., "Ant.", XIX,viii, 2). His death occurred in A.D. 44, the fifty-fourth year of his age, the seventh of his reign (ibid.). Gratz considers him one of the best of the Ilerods (Gesch. d. Jud., Ill, xii — Hist. (Eng.), II, vii) ; but Christians may not be willing to subscribe fully to this estimate.

V. Aghippa II was the son of Agrippa I, and in A.D. 44, the year of his father's death, the Emperor Claudius wished to give him the kingdom of his father, but he was dissuaded from his purpose because a youth of seventeen was hardly capable of assuming respon- sibilities so great (Jos., "Ant.", XIX, ix). About .\.D. 50 he was made King of Chalcis (Jos., " Bel. Jud.",

II, xii, 1), and afterwards ruler of a much larger terri- tory including the lands formerly governed by Philip and Lysanias (Jos., "Bel. Jud.", II, xii, 8). He was also titular king of Judea, and in twenty years ap- pointed seven high-priests (Gratz, "CSesch. d. Jud.",

III, xiv— "Hist." (Eng.), II, ix). When the Jews wishetl to free themselves from the dominion of Rome in the time of Florus, Agrippa showed them the folly of violent measures, and gave them a detailed account of the vast resources of the Roman empire (Jos., "Bel. Jud.", II, xvi, 4). St. Paul pleaded before this king, to whom Festus, the governor, referred the case (Acts, xxvi). The Apostle praises the king's knowledge of the " customs and questions that are among the Jews " (v. 3) ; Josephus likewise appeals to his judgment and calls him a most admirable man — 6avtia<n(iTaTos (Cont. Ap., I, ix). It was, therefore, not out of mere compliment thai; Festus invited him to hear what St. Paul had to say. His answer to the Apostle's appeal lias been variously interpreted : it may mean that St. Paul had not quite convinced him, which sense seems to suit the conte.xt better than the irony that some see in the king's words. The indifference, however, \\hich he manifested was in harmony with the "great pomp" with which he and his sister Berenice had en- tered the hall of audience (Acts, xxv, 23). After the fall of Jerusalem he lived at Rome, where he is said to have died in the third year of Trajan, a.d. 100. Gratz (Gesch. d. Jud., Ill, xvii, 410) gives a.d. 71-72 as the date of his death, a date based upon a more correct reading of a Greek text as authority.

Many histories and special studies throw light upon the Herodian age and family, but nearly all we know about the Herods comes through Josephus. The following, among many works, may be consulted:

ScHi-RER, GeKch. d. Jiid. Volkes ini Zcitalter Jesu Christi (Leipzig, 1898-10011, with comprehensive bibliography; tr. .4 Hist, of the Jewish People in the Time of J. C. (Edinburgh. 1837- 1898); Gratz. Gesch. </. Jiitl. (Ill, 11 vols.. Leipzig); tr. Hist, of the Jews. 6 vols. (.Jew. Pub. Soc, Phila., 1891-1902), without notes or references, II: Mu.man, The Historj/ of the Jews (3 vols. New York, 1870): and histories by Jost, Ewald, etc.; Hast- ings. A Dirt, of Christ and the Gospels (New York. 1907); Edersheim, The Lifeand Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1; Farrar, The Herods; Josephus, Ant., Books XIV-XX; Idem, Bel. Jud., Books I and II.

John J. Tiernet.